Crippled by Mere Memories
by Hollyleaf6
Summary: Spoilers for TMoA. ******* Piper's life is pretty messed up. A day after the events of the final chapter of The Mark of Athena, she finally snaps. T because I am paranoid. UP FOR ADOPTION. Thanks to lunaii-dollmaker for the cover picture.
1. Chapter 1

Who wouldn't have cracked after seeing what Piper McLean had seen? Doing what she had done?

Piper was curled in her bed, shaking, eyes distant. Memories flitted across her vision. Jason was jumping over the railing on the Grand Canyon's walkway. Leo was desperately trying to control a plummeting Festus. Jason was backing away while his friend pretended to be Dionysus. Percy and Annabeth were falling into Tartarus. Piper's dad was laying, dazed, in Piper's arms as she told him about her adventures as a demigod. Drew was insulting her, calling her Dumpster Queen. Percy and Annabeth were falling into Tartarus. Jason and Percy were wheeling towards each other on their horses, swords raised. The Romans were surrounding Piper and Jason had been struck with a brick. Leo waved off Piper's question about the weird pen tattoos and the TEAM LEO tee-shirt. Percy and Annabeth were falling into Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth were falling into Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth were falling...Percy and Annabeth...

"NOOO!" Piper cried out, eyes shut tight. The visions still came, even with her screaming, kicking, and crying. Jason ran into her room, expecting danger. He didn't expect what he found. Piper was rolling on the floor, laughing. _LAUGHING._  
"Pipes, what-?" Jason took a step forward and Piper froze. She turned toward him with an odd glint in her eyes. She whipped out Katropis and held it in a shaky hand. She jabbed at the air and yelled at the top of her lungs.

Nico sprinted into the room, sword drawn. At the sight of the son of Hades, Piper's scream broke off as if she was stunned into silence. Nico crossed over to her, and she stared up at him with wide kaleidoscope eyes. She smiled, dropped her blade, and pulled Nico into a hug, sword and all.

Nico looked surprised, but happy, which was something Jason had never seen Nico like. Jason felt like a third wheel, just staring blankly at the two.

Piper let out a sudden shaky breath. Her eyes became wider still as she took in the situation she was in. "Nico," she swallowed. "Why did you save the skeleton dog? The dog is already dead. Why couldn't you just let him drown?"

Jason had no idea what the Cherokee girl was talking about, but Nico's eyes dawned with realization. He pried Piper's fingers off of his arm and twisted his skull ring nervously.

"The ghosts are dancing, Nico. Can't you see them?" Piper gestured at the open bit of floor. Two people melted into existence, and mist curled around the couple. They laughed and spun, dancing to some fast paced music. The blonde giggled as she twirled.

Jason couldn't believe his eyes. Annabeth and Percy...no. They couldn't be dead.

The ghosts bowed with happy grins on their faces. Annabeth flipped a coin and it became tangible as soon as it left her hand. It landed at Nico's feet, heads up. Inscribed on the silver drachma were three letters. Alpha, theta, epsilon. Nico bent down and picked up the Athenian coin, holding it reverently in his hand. Percy took a very familiar pen out from his pocket and tossed it to Jason, who caught it out of reflex.

"We won't need these anymore. Good luck." Percy waved and disappeared, with Annabeth close behind.

Piper blinked furiously and looked over at Jason. She squinted, and a pained expression came over her face. "Do I know you?"

Jason clutched the pen tightly. "Of course you do, Piper. It's me, Jason Grace. Remember our quests together? The huge bronze dragon? Quebec, Chicago, Detroit?"

Jason was clearly panicking. His words came out as a jumbled mass of syllables and letters. Piper raised an eyebrow. "I went on a quest to free Hera with Leo Valdez and," she flashed a smile at Nico. "Nico DiAngelo. Are you trying to impersonate NIco? You're not doing a very good job."

"Piper..." Jason turned away and walked stiffly through the door. Piper turned towards Nico.

"Do you know that guy?"

"He's," Nico's voice cracked. "He's a friend."


	2. Chapter 2

Frank was sitting in the kitchen, picking at a doughnut half-heartedly. He didn't even look up at Jason when he walked in. "Nightmares?"

Jason didn't show any sign that he had heard Frank. He just collapsed in a chair and stared absentmindedly at the table top.

"What's going on?" Frank prompted after five minutes of waiting for Jason to speak.  
"It's Piper," Jason shook his head as if he was trying to clear his thoughts. "There's something wrong...different. She...she can't remember me."

Frank's eyes widened. "That's impossible!"

Jason rested his head in his hands. "Piper thinks that...every moment, every second of time she has ever spent with me...in her mind, it's all twisted around so that Nico," Jason paused. "So that Nico has done all the things _I_ have done. That he went with her and Leo on the quest to the Wolf House and _everything_."

Frank didn't know how to respond. This wasn't a situation where you could just say _It'll be okay,_ and everything would get better.

Jason wasn't finished yet.

"We saw two ghosts. Just now." Jason took a deep breath to calm himself, but his emotions were rising. What did he do to deserve this? "Go on, guess."

When Frank did not reply, Jason slammed a pen down on the table. The cap flew off and the pen elongated into a sword. _Anaklusmos_ was engraved on the hilt.

"It was Percy. Percy and Annabeth. Do you know what that means, Frank? They're dead. _Dead._ Our friends are gone and our quest has failed and-"

"They can't be."

"What?"

"They can't be dead. They're the strongest demigods I have ever seen. If they can defeat Saturn, they can defeat anything. Even all the monsters in Tartarus."

"They are," Jason said, biting his lip. His burst of anger was waning. "I know this may sound empty, but I'm sorry. I really am."

The Athena Parthenos hung out of the stable's bay door slightly. The midday sun cast a white glow on the statue, nearly blinding Hazel when she tried to look directly at it.

Hazel had been in the stable for hours after Nico's announcement. How could this have happened? How could Percy and Annabeth be dead? How could Piper's memories of Jason just disappear like, _sorry we don't feel like being here, see you later_?

Hazel felt like kicking the treacherous stature, but she knew all she'd get out of it was a few throbbing toes. Percy and Annabeth had _died_ for that statue, and it sure wasn't acting like _any_ giant's bane.

The entire ship shuddered and Leo's voice was heard over the intercom. "This is the Supreme Commander of the Argo II speaking. Welcome to Epirus, GReece, home of the House of Hades."

Hazel stood shakily, pocketing a few denarii that had popped up by her feet. She hadn't even noticed they had touched land. She squeezed around the Athena Parthenos and hopped down to the ground from the bay doors instead of traveling through the entire ship and climbing down a rope ladder.

She waited for the others to come out, idly tossing her _spatha_ from hand to hand. Piper was off the ship first, chatting animatedly with Nico, oblivious to the fact that anything was wrong. Jason and Frank seemed to be ignoring each other at the moment, and Leo's hair was smoking dangerously.

"So," Leo said. "What's the plan? This _has_ been a bit easy, don't you think?"

Nico nodded, pulling away from a very clingy Piper. "This has _got_ to be some sort of trap."

Something behind them exploded in a flash of green light.

Jason drew his gladius. "And _that_ would be the trap."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to TheSeventhNecromancer and ****VasHappenin for reviewing, and The Avian-Olympian for following. It really makes my day.**  
**In response to guest reviewer, VasHappenin, I am a huge Jasper shipper too, I have no idea where in Hades this story came from :)**  
**I already disclaimed PJatO and HoO in chapter 2, but I'm just saying that anything you recognize from **_**other**_** works, well, I don't own those either.**  
**And I found out that Epirus is actually a province in Greece, not a city, but I'm too lazy to change the plotline of this story so that they can search all four major cities...**

_Jason drew his gladius. "And that would be the trap."_

A chimera, probably the only monster Jason had not fought, had exploded out of a building, spitting Greek Fire. Jason knew they breathed fire, but _Greek Fire_?

"Some sort of crazy hybrid," Nico yelled over to him, drawing his Stygian Iron blade. Piper whipped out Katropis, and the scene seemed so familiar that Jason's heart crawled into his throat. Annabeth had told a story about a chimera once. The one that had slightly disrupted her first quest. What had Percy done about it? Jason couldn't remember now.

"We'll fight together!" Frank yelled raising his bow.

_Together, _a voice agreed in Jason's mind. Jason charged the chimera head on and was vaguely aware of Frank just behind him, with an arrow already pulled back on its string.

_Watch for the snake,_ the voice warned. True enough, the chimera's snake tail whipped around and knocked the gladius out of Jason's hand. The metal smoked and when Jason tried to pick it up, the Imperial Gold blade crumbled into dust.

"Stupid, idiotic, son of a Gorgon," Jason cursed and pulled Percy's pen from his pocket. He uncapped it and stuffed the cap into his pocket as the pen transformed into Riptide. One of the chimera's massive lion paws took a swipe at Jason and he sidestepped just in time. He swung the Greek sword and the voice inside his head spoke again. _There you go._

As Jason fought he realized he was using the Greek fighting style, not one he liked to use. When he went for a Roman stab instead of a slash, that stupid voice began it's next monologue.

_Hey, I'm helping you, okay? Just go with it._

After that comment, Jason went on autopilot and let his mind wander. What if the voice was an eidolon. Didn't Leo say it tried to _help_ him? But Jason felt perfectly normal...

_We both had the eidolon experience. Why in Hades would I do that to you? You _know_ this is different. Gods, wouldn't that be creepy if I possessed you? No way._

The conclusion clicked in Jason's head and he wondered how he had been so stupid. "Percy?" Jason asked as he ducked a jet of green flame.

"Of course!" Percy's voice came from beside Jason now. He turned and there Percy was, leaning on Jason's gladius(_regenerated_ gladius, mind you) like an old man's staff. Percy stumbled backwards suddenly. "Jason, look out!"

Jason turned and raised Riptide, but the burst of flame came too fast. There was a flash of red-gold and the Greek Fire didn't come.

Percy whooped and pointed over to Leo, who was engaged in a sort of Priori Incantatem battle. Flame was bursting from his hands, fighting the Greek Fire from the chimera.

"Well?" Leo yelled. "Are you going to run, or what? Do you _want_ to die?"

The chimera melted into sand. In front of the dust pile stood Piper, looking very proud of herself. That is, until the chimera began to reform. She ran from the shifting sand hill. "What are we waiting for? Let's go find those doors!"

A very disheveled Hazel nodded furiously. Her hair was singed so badly that when she nodded, the burnt ends just broke off.

"Oh that's nice," muttered Hazel. She changed the subject from the Doors. "So nobody's hurt?"

\/

Nico was having a bad day. First, Piper went insane at one o'clock in the morning, has a fit, recovers, can't remember her boyfriend, then becomes all clingy on Nico. Not fair, not fair at all.

Nico had always liked Piper, just a little bit, but he didn't know what to feel now. If Piper was just manipulated by Aphrodite to like him...he couldn't do that to Jason.

Nico scowled as they walked on through the city, trying to find the House of Hades. It was hopeless. What did they expect the House to have? A giant, blinking neon sign?

Would they even be able to close the doors? Nico knew the answer was no. Unless someone slipped through the Doors into Tartarus and closed them from the inside, their quest was doomed. Who would go into Tartarus on purpose?


	4. I am Sorry

**Dear Readers,**

I'm sorry but I am discontinuing Crippled by Mere Memories. I am more of a oneshot writer, but if anyone wants to adopt this and make it their own they are fully welcome to, but credit me for the idea, maybe. I apologize for any broken computer screens and tantrums this event may have caused, but keep on the lookout for more oneshots from me later. I have turned my eye on Avengers fandom, so I might write one of those. Just please don't kill me, that would be nice. Cookies for all my readers, especially The Seventh Necromancer. You are awesomesauce for reviewing both of my stories...cookies for you! (::) (::) (::)

Hollyleaf6

P.S. Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?


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